May 4 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Monday in line with Wall Street, as escalating tensions between the United States and China regarding the origin of the novel coronavirus fueled fears of a new trade war.
U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that there was "a significant amount of evidence" that the new coronavirus originated from a Chinese laboratory. Last week, President Donald Trump had threatened further tariff action against China over the virus. At 9:39 a.m. ET (1339 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 79.55 points, or 0.54%, at 14,540.79.
* The energy sector .SPTTEN dropped 1.8% as U.S. crude CLc1 prices were down 1.4% a barrel, while Brent crude LCOc1 lost 0.5%. O/R
* The financials sector .SPTTFS slipped 1.4%. The industrials sector .GSPTTIN fell 1.1%.
* The materials sector .GSPTTMT , which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 1.6% as gold futures GCc1 rose 0.3% to $1,699.6 an ounce. GOL/
* On the TSX, 49 issues were higher, while 180 issues declined for a 3.67-to-1 ratio to the downside, with 22.88 million shares traded.
* The largest percentage gainers on the TSX were NovaGold Resources Inc NG.TO and Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd WDO.TO that jumped 4.3% and 4.2% respectively after gold prices rose as the Sino-U.S. tensions pushed investors to safe havens.
* Chorus Aviation Inc CHR.TO fell 11.5%, the most on the TSX. The second-biggest decliner was Air Canada AC.TO , down 9.4% after it posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss and warned of an about 75% drop in third-quarter capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
* The most heavily traded shares by volume were Air Canada AC.TO , Bombardier Inc BBDb.TO and Bank of Montreal BMO.TO .
* The TSX posted six new 52-week highs and no new lows.
* Across all Canadian issues, there were 15 new 52-week highs and five new lows, with total volume of 41.62 million shares.